Book Review: Bad Girl Gone by Temple Mathews

Imagine waking up in an orphanage surrounded by a strange mix of troubled kids. That’s exactly what happened to sixteen-year-old Echo Stone.

Echo doesn’t know how she’s gotten to Middle House, an orphanage, because she has parents. But Middle House is actually an “orphanage” for the ghosts of murder victims. It’s a sort of purgatory that these “in-betweeners” are living in until they can solve their murders/finish their business. Echo not only discovers she was murdered, but she visits the gruesome crime scene. With the help of Cole, another in-betweener, Echo sets about to figure out who could have disliked her enough to murder her. She also discovers she might not have been as well-liked as she’d imagined.

As the book opens I found myself as bewildered as Echo must certainly feel. What a strange place Middle House is! It took some time to get my bearings in this book and figure out what was going on. I appreciated the adventure of Echo trying to solve her own murder, dealing with the reality that her life—and those she loved—are far out of reach for her, and I found this to be a quick and easy read.

My criticisms are that I can’t say I ever really felt a connection to Echo, I was interested in the story, but didn’t develop the deep level of connection which makes me really care about the character. I also didn’t feel invested in her romance with Cole.